Disposable absorbent products such as infant diapers, diaper-pants, training pants, feminine care pads and adult incontinence pads/garments are complex products designed to absorb insults of various bodily exudates. These types of absorbent products include multiple components, are made on high speed production lines, need to be cost affordable and most importantly, must perform their intended function. In order to be of the quality expected by consumers, individual absorbent products need to include a complete set of the individual components (e.g. an absorbent core, pair of fasteners, pair of leg elastics, pair of containment flaps, etc.). Manufacturing systems have been developed that bring all of the components together in one “web” of materials from which individual absorbent products are formed. The quality of the individual absorbent products is controlled so that each product has the intended components and the components are properly attached to and aligned with each other, with some tolerance for manufacturing variability.
Disposable absorbent products are typically constructed of multiple nonwoven material components. For example, disposable absorbent products may include a bodyside liner (also known as a topsheet) that contacts the wearer's skin in use, an absorbent core and an outer cover (also known as a backsheet) that is typically liquid impermeable. In addition, disposable absorbent products may include components such as leg elastics, waist elastics, containment flaps, front waist ear portions, back waist ear portions and fastening systems for improving the fit and containment of the products. In order to form the finished absorbent product, the various components are placed in desired relationship to each other and, where necessary, the components are attached to each other using methods known in the art. The “chassis” of a disposable absorbent product typically refers to the combination of the bodyside liner, absorbent core and outer cover components. The chassis of an absorbent product may include two longitudinal edges, that generally define the length of an article, and two lateral edges, that generally define the waist edges and width of the absorbent product.
The fluff pulp fibers used in the absorbent core of an absorbent product provide mechanical strength and integrity to the absorbent core, and ultimately, to the absorbent product. In addition, the fluff pulp fibers provide the necessary surface energy to distribute the insulting exudates within the absorbent product. Current treated and non-treated fluff pulp fibers, when used with superabsorbent materials in an air-formed absorbent product, creates a stiff, rigid absorbent core that is typically poorly conformable to the body of the wearer and/or does not interact with the other components of the absorbent product to provide an absorbent product having adequate comfort and/or functionality.
While various components of disposable absorbent products have been altered, modified, or manipulated to provide improved products, fluff pulp fibers have not been optimized for flexibility and absorbency. Consequently, there remains a need in the area of disposable absorbent products for absorbent cores comprising fluff pulp fibers that provide improved flexibility (and consequently, improved conformability) and absorbency of such products. There also remains a need for a fluff pulp fiber treatment to provide absorbent fluff pulp fibers having a low dry stiffness capable of providing a conformable disposable absorbent product when incorporated in the absorbent core of the disposable absorbent product.